$22,000 Jury Award for Unsanitary Conditions at Virginia Jail
A federal jury in Virginia returned a verdict on March 22, 2024, in favor of Antoinette Weathers, 63, in her civil rights challenge to conditions at Peninsula Regional Jail when detained there after a June 2022 conviction of misdemeanor assault.
Weathers was ordered to serve three weeks at the jail. While there, she was denied toilet paper despite repeated requests; other prisoners told her to use towels, “like we all do.” But the towels and washcloths that she received, according to the complaint she later filed, were “caked in fecal matter”—apparently from prior use by other detainees.
She filed suit in federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia over the unsanitary conditions of confinement, including the lack of toilet paper, noting that she developed a rash as a result. The conditions of her incarceration were “so unsanitary, unsafe, and mentally torturous” as to violate her Eighth Amendment right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, her complaint alleged.
Weathers further argued that Defendant jail officials had “intentionally created a dangerous and sadistic environment in order to maliciously cause fear and trauma.” The complaint detailed a plethora of other problems at the jail, including the presence of weapons and drugs, untrained and uncertified guards, lack of medical and mental health care, numerous lockdowns due to understaffing, denial of pre-approved reading materials, as well as sexual misconduct.
The physical and emotional injuries resulting from these conditions, Weathers claimed, included a 10-pound weight loss in less than a month, plus severe anxiety, panic attacks, abdominal pain and shortness of breath. Those claims related to unsanitary conditions—the lack of toilet paper and feces-covered towels—then proceeded to trial. Jail officials refuted the claims, but a jury believed Weathers, finding the regional jail authority and Superintendent Roy C. Witham violated her Eighth Amendment rights and were “grossly negligent” under state law.
The jury verdict included $2,000 in compensatory damages against Witham and $20,000 against the jail authority. While punitive damages were not awarded, Defendants were held liable for an estimated $60,000 in fees and costs for Weathers’ Richmond attorney, Blake A. Weiner. See: Weathers v. Witham, USDC (E.D. Va.), Case No. 4:23-cv-00008.
Additional source: Newport News Daily Press